Monday 21st March 2022

Aston Valkyrie AMR Pro makes dynamic debut

Bahrain Grand Prix played host to the incredible Pro over the weekend

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Aston Martin is nothing if not busy right now. Fresh from the launch of the DBX707 and V12 Vantage, the Valkyrie AMR Pro has now made its dynamic debut. The hypercar's gestation has been somewhat protracted - having first been shown in 2018, only to re-emerge last year in very different format, inspired by the cancelled Le Mans Hypercar project. So it's certainly encouraging to see it in real life. Or as real life as the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend ever can be.

Certainly time has done nothing to dull the impact of the Pro's styling; even photographed on a race track, and even with track-only hypercars having come before it, the Valkyrie looks out of this world. The aero extensions are like nothing else, the ride height couldn't be any lower and the driver's canopy seems straight from a prototype racer. Even compared to the standard Valkyrie, the Pro looks extraordinary.

Seems like it drives alright, too, at least according to Dirk Muller, the man tasked with driving the prototype before the Bahrain Grand Prix. "That was unbelievable. I know everyone says that about cars all the time but seriously, this car is something else. It's closer to an F1 car in terms of performance than anything else I have ever driven. The power, the handling, the grip, everything is perfect."

And, of course, there's the noise, 6.5-litre V12 howling to the high heavens as it nears 11,000rpm. The F1 cars must have seemed quite disappointing after this, especially as the Valkyrie wouldn't have been going an awful lot slower.

Tobias Moers added of the debut: "All of our test drivers, all extremely successful racing drivers, are in awe of this car and it is easy to understand why. Valkyrie AMR Pro is approaching F1 performance levels, and we are very proud of the most extreme Aston Martin yet."

Interestingly, deliveries of the AMR Pro have actually begun, following just a few months after the standard Valkyrie. Later this year the dedicated Aston track experience programme will get underway for customers, taking them to tracks across the globe to really test their cars. If you thought one AMR Pro made for quite the spectacle, imagine if all 40 can get together...

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• Riding the Valkyrie with Tobias Moers
• Aston Martin Valkyrie deliveries begin

[Vee12V]

They still should've gone racing with it.

[BigChiefmuffinAgain]

I wonder if, given the choice now of never ever even starting this project, Aston would now give it a miss.

You get the feeling it hasn't quite worked out as planned and has been a big distraction.

[MadCaptainJack]

Did it set a lap time?

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

Almost as quick as an F1 car? Maybe in a straight line, can't see it being remotely close around a track though?! Certainly not if it's road legal.

[ChrisCh86]

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Almost as quick as an F1 car? Maybe in a straight line, can't see it being remotely close around a track though?! Certainly not if it's road legal.

The Pro isn't road legal.

The standard version is - but that has less aero and a higher ride height.

[paddycam]

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Almost as quick as an F1 car? Maybe in a straight line, can't see it being remotely close around a track though?! Certainly not if it's road legal.

It's not road-legal.

[RacerMike]

ChrisCh86 said:

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Almost as quick as an F1 car? Maybe in a straight line, can't see it being remotely close around a track though?! Certainly not if it's road legal.

The Pro isn't road legal.

The standard version is - but that has less aero and a higher ride height.

Second flying lap is a 1min54sec, so about 20s of F1. Not sure of course how on it Dirk Mueller was, but one assume not absolutely flat out. So if it can, in reality, go around 5-6s faster and get into the 40s that’s probably about as fast as a P1 car which is very very impressive.

[Big Nanas]

RacerMike said:

Second flying lap is a 1min54sec, so about 20s of F1. Not sure of course how on it Dirk Mueller was, but one assume not absolutely flat out. So if it can, in reality, go around 5-6s faster and get into the 40s that’s probably about as fast as a P1 car which is very very impressive.

To give some comparison, this weekend's qualifying times were:
F1 - 1min 30secs
F2 - 1min 40secs
F3 - 1min 46secs

[Bencolem]

I wonder what Mr Newey thinks of all of that aero addenda; presumably that was not part of his original design intent for the car?

[Esceptico]

Big Nanas said:

RacerMike said:

Second flying lap is a 1min54sec, so about 20s of F1. Not sure of course how on it Dirk Mueller was, but one assume not absolutely flat out. So if it can, in reality, go around 5-6s faster and get into the 40s that’s probably about as fast as a P1 car which is very very impressive.

To give some comparison, this weekend's qualifying times were:
F1 - 1min 30secs
F2 - 1min 40secs
F3 - 1min 46secs

So not even close to F1 pace. So why are AM making such claims? And that is for a non road legal car. Presumably the road car version would be considerably slower. No doubt still very impressive compared to other road cars but not in the same league as F1.

Still no sign of a road test either. Have to suspect that it makes a dreadful road car.

[Manic Street Sleeper]

Did the wings melt in the heat ?

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

RacerMike said:

ChrisCh86 said:

TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Almost as quick as an F1 car? Maybe in a straight line, can't see it being remotely close around a track though?! Certainly not if it's road legal.

The Pro isn't road legal.

The standard version is - but that has less aero and a higher ride height.

Second flying lap is a 1min54sec, so about 20s of F1. Not sure of course how on it Dirk Mueller was, but one assume not absolutely flat out. So if it can, in reality, go around 5-6s faster and get into the 40s that’s probably about as fast as a P1 car which is very very impressive.

So still nowhere near as fast as an F1 car though? Impressive yes, but for a non-legal car? It's not that impressive, is it?

[GingerMunky]

Esceptico said:

Big Nanas said:

RacerMike said:

Second flying lap is a 1min54sec, so about 20s of F1. Not sure of course how on it Dirk Mueller was, but one assume not absolutely flat out. So if it can, in reality, go around 5-6s faster and get into the 40s that’s probably about as fast as a P1 car which is very very impressive.

To give some comparison, this weekend's qualifying times were:
F1 - 1min 30secs
F2 - 1min 40secs
F3 - 1min 46secs

So not even close to F1 pace. So why are AM making such claims?

Excellent marketing And written into every purchase agreement will be "not allowed to be used anywhere that such a benchmark could be usefully derived" lol.

[Cold]

Well, they haven't mentioned which F1 car.

[giveitfish]

Big Nanas said:

RacerMike said:

Second flying lap is a 1min54sec, so about 20s of F1. Not sure of course how on it Dirk Mueller was, but one assume not absolutely flat out. So if it can, in reality, go around 5-6s faster and get into the 40s that’s probably about as fast as a P1 car which is very very impressive.

To give some comparison, this weekend's qualifying times were:
F1 - 1min 30secs
F2 - 1min 40secs
F3 - 1min 46secs

GTE Pro cars ~ 1:55 qualifying time
LMP2 ~1:45 qualifying time
LMP1 ~1:42 qualifying time

Lando spent his first 20 race laps doing 1:42/1:43 yesterday.

In the 2020 WEC race the winning LMP2's best race lap was 1:49.9

So the Valkyrie is long way from being slow and as yet we don't know what it's really capable of do we? Might approach LMP2 pace when driven properly hard.

Edited by giveitfish on Monday 21st March 17:39

[Krikkit]

Cold said:

Well, they haven't mentioned which F1 car.

That was the original claim when the project first started, I seem to remember it was the Red Bull end which was making that kind of statement too.

Can't remember it being made for a long time though.

[thegreenhell]

I honestly don't care how fast it is relative to something else, especially when it will never be on track against any of those other cars people are comparing it to. It just looks and sounds bloody fantastic on the move.

[Isebac]

Krikkit said:

That was the original claim when the project first started, I seem to remember it was the Red Bull end which was making that kind of statement too.

Can't remember it being made for a long time though.

AM has made multiple statements saying the Valkyrie is gonna be on par with LMP1/F1 and even some saying it's gonna be faster. And that's them talking about the ROAD CAR VERSION. They said that the AMR Pro is definitely gonna be faster than an F1 car and they even put a number on it - saying it's gonna have 105% the pace of an F1.

That was in a video just 2 years ago (7:20 for the actual claims):


(In the same video they also claim the road car version is gonna have 95% the pace of an F1, which is an even more hilarious lie)

It's true that the 1:54 they managed probably wasn't the ultimate pace the car can achieve, but even if it wasn't, it's still so far from the 1:30.6 F1 pole (which in itself is 1.7s slower than the fastest F1 lap) that there is no way it's ever gonna get close to that under any circumstances. And the more telling thing is, they COULD HAVE gone all out and set a representative lap, but they didn't. That tells you everything you need to know. Same thing with the road version - now that the cars are supposedly getting delivered (although not really), where is them putting their HALO car to use and farming all the positive press they can get by putting the Valkyrie around some circuits and have it be almost as fast as an F1 car as promised? *Play crickets sound...*

Edited by Isebac on Monday 21st March 17:55

[thegreenhell]

Manufacturers' hyperbole about their new products is nothing new, much like when Ron Dennis proclaimed the Mclaren P1 would be the fastest production car around any circuit ever and claimed it had set an unbeatable lap time at the Nurburgring, but then wouldn't tell anyone what lap times it could do or let anyone else test it.

[Esceptico]

thegreenhell said:

Manufacturers' hyperbole about their new products is nothing new, much like when Ron Dennis proclaimed the Mclaren P1 would be the fastest production car around any circuit ever and claimed it had set an unbeatable lap time at the Nurburgring, but then wouldn't tell anyone what lap times it could do or let anyone else test it.

Agreed but still AM stand alone in their promotion of statements that are ridiculous. The P1 might not have been the fastest as promised but if it wasn’t, it failed by a few seconds over a seven minute lap ie out by about 1%. Looking at the times at Bahrain the Valkyrie isn’t slower than an F1 car by 1%, it is slower by 25%-30%.